Examining resilience sources of adolescents who have siblings with autism spectrum disorders and attitudes towards their siblings

The first aim of this study is to examine whether there are significant differences in resilience sources and the attitudes of individuals who have siblings with ASD in terms of some demographic variables. The second aim of the study was to investigate whether resilience sources of individuals with siblings with ASD predict their attitudes towards disabled siblings. The research group is composed 254 adolescents who have siblings with ASD, living in Denizli and İzmir. Due to the difficulty in reaching participants, the research group was selected from the siblings of the students attending various secondary and high schools and special education centers in Denizli and İzmir. The data is collected during 2016-2018 years. A total of 254 students were reached in the study. The age range of participants ranged from 11 to 18, 123 are girls and 131 are boys. In this study, data collection instruments were Attitude Scale for Disabled Sibling, Resilience Scale for Children and Personal Information Form prepared by researcher. According to the results of Mann Whitney-U analysis, there was a significant difference in the sub-dimension of resilience sources according to gender variable. It was found that there was a significant difference in resilience sources in the family sub-dimension and attitude towards the sibling, thought about the characteristics of the sibling, and sadness and anxiety about the sibling's status. It was found that there was a significant difference in school-teacher sub-dimension and thought about the characteristics of the sibling sub-dimension of attitude towards the sibling according to presence of helper for the caring of the child. It was found that there was a significant difference in resilience sources according to the gender of the sibling variable in the sub-dimension of friends and in the thought sub-dimension of the attitude towards the sibling. According to the results of the Kruskal Wallis analysis, there was a significant difference in all sub-dimensions of resilience sources and attitude towards siblings according to family's income group variable. According to the degree of disability, there was a significant difference in resilience sources in the school-teacher sub-dimension and the attitude towards the sibling regarding the characteristics of the sibling and sadness and anxiety about the sibling's status. As a result of multiple regression analysis, it was found that the resilience sources significantly predicted the emotion and thought scores of living with his sibling. Among the resilience sources, it was found that the sub-dimensions of friends and school-teachers significantly predicted the thought scores of the sibling's characteristics. Among the resilience sources, it was found that the sub-dimensions of family, oneself and friends significantly predicted sadness and anxiety scores regarding the sibling's status. Key Words: Resilience, Attitude towards Disabled Sibling, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adolescence